Firefighters received 18 call-outs following thunderstorms and downpours during the strike action period yesterday.

The majority of calls to Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service between 5pm and 7pm on Sunday (July 20) were weather-related, caused by flooding and automatic fire alarms. Nine calls were specifically related to flooding – and crews went to two of these incidents. The first was at 5.43pm in Carter Close, Brampton, where one crew spent half an hour pumping water from inside a house. The second was in Kimbolton Court, Peterborough.

Of the seven places they did not attend, five were in Huntingdonshire. High Street, Offord D’Arcy, Buckden Road, Brampton, High Street, Brampton, East Street, Bluntisham, and Park Way, Offord Cluny, were all affected by flooding.

There were five automatic fire alarms, four of which were attended by crews and all were false alarms. In addition, there was a report of a building fire in Peterborough and a fire in the open in Littleport. Both were false alarms. There was also a car fire on the eastbound carriageway of the Fletton Parkway in Peterborough at 6.39pm.

Deputy chief fire officer Chris Strickland said: “It was a busy evening for our service but this is often the case when the weather is stormy, due to thunder activating automatic fire alarms and flash flooding affecting roads and property. There is unfortunately only so much we can do to help people with flooding of this kind. Our control operators will always find out as much information about the situation as possible and then make a judgement as to whether the fire service would be able to assist. If we do not attend we always advise residents to ring back if the situation worsens. If there is life risk then we will of course attend. Our resilience crews in the worst affected areas had a busy evening but we managed to attend everything that we would have done normally, and had crews in the surrounding area we could have called upon if necessary.”

During strike action from 11pm on Friday (July 18) and 1am on Saturday (July 19), there was one incident in Huntingdonshire – an automatic fire alarm at a sheltered housing scheme in Crown Gardens, Alconbury, at 12.50am. This was a false alarm. There were also call-outs to two other false alarms in Oxney Road, Eastfield, Peterborough, at 11.46pm, and The Boathouse pub, Thorpe Road, Peterborough, at 12.27am.

This morning (Monday) there were two false alarms during the strike from 6am-8am – one at a sheltered housing scheme in Park Road, Peterborough at 7.22am, and one in Westgate, Peterborough, at 7.28am.

The last strike will be held this evening from 5-7pm.